PokerStars Revives WCOOP Boot Camp With Free BBZ Coaching
Reports differed on the exact event count and guarantee, but the warm-up series again mixed low and high tracks, main events and ticket giveaways.
PokerStars brought back WCOOP Boot Camp as a pre-WCOOP warm-up, pairing tournament action with free coaching and ticket giveaways for players trying to sharpen their game before the main series.
The exact scale of the promotion was described a little differently across reports. A Poker.org announcement said the Boot Camp would run from August 2 to 17, feature 130 events, and carry more than $6.5 million in guaranteed prizes. Later 2025 coverage from PokerNews, Primedope and BBZ Poker described the same warm-up as running August 3 to 18 with 137 tournaments across 69 unique events and more than $9 million in guarantees.
That report said the series was meant as a learning opportunity even with the prize money on offer. That version of the schedule split play into Low and High tracks, listed satellites from $0.55, and put two Main Events on August 16, a $109 Low Main Event with a $500,000 guarantee and a $1,050 High Main Event with a $300,000 guarantee.
The same report said the schedule mixed in a wide range of formats, including HORSE, 2-7 single draw, turbos, mystery bounties and progressive KO events. It also said there were 65 events on the slate and that players could almost play a different game every day of the series.
The coaching side was a big part of the pitch. That report said BBZ Poker coaches would host free strategy sessions every Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. CEST on the BBZ Discord, with passwords for special centroll tournaments afterward that awarded $1,000 or more in WCOOP tickets.
Other coverage of the 2025 promotion described three free coaching sessions on August 1, 8 and 15, with BBZ founder Jordan Drummond leading them on Discord and ticket giveaways. BBZ said recordings would also be available for anyone who could not join live.
The promotion also included extra paths to prizes. PokerNews said the WCOOP Boot Camp Leaderboard paid out $60,000 in prizes to the top 100 players in events up to $215, while the Ticket Machine offered $150,000 in WCOOP tickets and required opt-in through the Challenges window starting July 31.
Primedope and BBZ added that the Ticket Machine used two prize draws on August 12 and August 19, each worth $75,000 in tickets, and that players could qualify by completing either of two challenges, playing 10 Boot Camp events or finishing in the money in two events.
Benjamin 'Spraggy' Spragg, a PokerStars ambassador and WCOOP champion, summed up the angle as prep work. He said Boot Camp was a fun and focused way to practice, test new strategies and get tournament-ready before WCOOP kicked off.
